The Trolley Problem Mysteries

F.M. Kamm and Edited by Eric Rakowski

Description

A rigorous treatment of a thought experiment that has become notorious within and outside of philosophy - The Trolley Problem - by one of the most influential moral philosophers alive today

Suppose you can stop a trolley from killing five people, but only by turning it onto a side track where it will kill one. May you turn the trolley? What if the only way to rescue the five is to topple a bystander in front of the trolley so that his body stops it but he dies? May you use a device to stop the trolley that will kill a bystander as a side effect? The "Trolley Problem" challenges us to explain and justify our different intuitive judgments about these and related cases and has spawned a huge literature. F.M. Kamm's 2013 Tanner Lectures present some of her views on this notorious moral conundrum. After providing a brief history of changing views of what the problem is about and attempts to solve it, she focuses on two prominent issues: Does who turns the trolley and how the harm is shifted affect the moral permissibility of acting? The answers to these questions lead to general proposals about when we may and may not harm some to help others.

Three distinguished philosophers - Judith Jarvis Thomson (one of the originators of the trolley problem), Thomas Hurka, and Shelly Kagan - then comment on Kamm's proposals. She responds to each comment at length, providing an exceptionally rich elaboration and defense of her views. The Trolley Problem Mysteries is an invaluable resource not only to philosophers concerned about the Trolley Problem, but to anyone worried about how we ought to act when we can lessen harm to some by harming others and how we can reach a decision about the question.

The Trolley Problem Mysteries

F.M. Kamm and Edited by Eric Rakowski

Author Information

F. M. Kamm is Littauer Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Kamm is a Professor of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts and Sciences within the Philosophy Department at Harvard University. Kamm is also author of Intricate Ethics (OUP 2010) and Bioethical Prescriptions (OUP 2013), and others.

Eric Rakowski is Edward C. Halbach Jr. Professor of Law at University of California Berkeley.

Contributors:

Thomas Hurka is Chancellor Henry N. R. Jackman Distinguished Professor of Philosophical Studies at the University of Toronto. He previously served as professor of philosophy at the University of Calgary and as a visiting fellow at Oxford. He is a member of the Canadian and American Philosophical Associations and an editorial board member of Ethics. Hurka's work centers on moral and political philosophy, with emphases on normative ethical theory and perfectionist moral theories. His has written on issues of punishment, population, nationalism, friendship and war. Hurka's many contributions include two works on perfectionist moral theory: Perfectionism (Oxford, 1993) and Virtue, Vice, and Value (Oxford, 2001). He is also the author of The Best Things in Life: A Guide to What Really Matters (Oxford, 2010) and British Ethical Theorists from Sidgwick to Ewing (Oxford, 2015).

Shelly Kagan is Clark Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. Prior to his appointment at Yale, Kagan taught at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Kagan's work focuses on moral philosophy, and more specifically on normative ethics. He has published widely, on topics including well-being, desert, mortality, and Kantianism. However, the main focus of his research has been consequentialism and its contrast with deontological moral theories. Kagan is the author of numerous influential works including The Limits of Morality (Oxford, 1989), which offers a defense of consequentialism, Normative Ethics (Westview, 1997), Death (Yale, 2012), and The Geometry of Desert (Oxford, 2012).

Frances Kamm is Lucius Littauer Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, and Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University. Kamm's work focuses on normative and applied ethics. Her research has addressed issues in nonconsequentialist ethical theory and the moral problems of mortality, bioethics, torture, and war. She serves on the editorial board of Philosophy & Public Affairs, among other journals, and on the Faculty Advisory Committee of the Edmond J. Safra Ethics Center. She has held Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Eric Rakowski is Halbach Professor of Trust & Estates Law at the University of California at Berkeley. His philosophical work is concerned primarily with questions of distributive justice, trade-offs between lives, and biomedical ethical problems. He is the author of Equal Justice (Oxford, 1991).

Judith Thomson is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at MIT. She has held visiting appointments at the Australian National University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of California at Berkeley, and Yale Law School. Thomson is widely recognized for her work in metaphysics, the theory of action, causation, and ethics, where her writing on moral rights has earned special attention. Her books include Acts and Other Events (Cornell, 1977), Rights, Restitution, and Risk (Harvard, 1986), The Realm of Rights (Harvard, 1990), Moral Relativism and Moral Objectivity (with Gilbert Harman) (Wiley-Blackwell, 1996), Goodness and Advice (Princeton, 2003), and Normativity (Open Court, 2008). Thomson has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Centre for Advanced Study at Oslo. She is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Trolley Problem Mysteries

F.M. Kamm and Edited by Eric Rakowski

Reviews and Awards

"In response to her commentators Kamm tries to answer these objections and many other objections. And these remarkable exchanges between some leading contributors make this book really invaluable. I suggest reading this book to every graduate student or moral philosopher who wishes to know lots of hypothetical cases in which the trolley problem happens." -- Metapsychology Online Reviews

"...the book is best seen as an overview of the important contributions that Kamm and her interlocutors have made to the literature. It is also a rich source of cases for testing new hypotheses- cases ranging from ingenious classics like Transplant, Driver, and Bystander, to some newer developments like Driver Topple and Thomson's Loop Case, to some particularly perplexing cases involving tractors and bombs...the trolley problem is still as real, pressing, and fascinating as ever, and it is helpful to have as one's guide through the problem a philosopher who does not shy away from complexities." -- Ethics

"Professor Frances Myrna Kamm, a moral philosopher who for decades has been a leading analyst of this thought experiment, has now published her richly stimulating Tanner Lectures. Joining her lectures as chapters in the book are a trio of rigorous and unrelenting responses from a panel of philosophers--Professors Judith Jarvis Thomson, Thomas Hurka, and Shelly Kagan-as well as an introduction by legal scholar Professor Eric Rakowski...The beating heart of this book is a fresh, often raw, analytical quarrel between Kamm and Thomson...The book's timing is impeccable...due in part to its uncanny resemblance to emergent questions about how to program autonomous vehicles--such as military drones or driverless cars--to act ethically." -- Harvard Law Review

The Trolley Problem Mysteries

F.M. Kamm and Edited by Eric Rakowski

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